Colorado § 18-1.3-1205 - Week of execution - warrant.

§ 18-1.3-1205. Week of execution - warrant.

When a person is convicted of a class 1 felony, the punishment for which is death, and the convicted person is sentenced to suffer the penalty of death, the judge passing such sentence shall appoint and designate in the warrant of conviction a week of time within which the sentence must be executed; the end of such week so appointed shall be not fewer than ninety-one days nor more than one hundred twenty-six days from the day of passing the sentence. Said warrant shall be directed to the executive director of the department of corrections or the executive director's designee commanding said executive director or designee to execute the sentence imposed upon some day within the week of time designated in the warrant and shall be delivered to the sheriff of the county in which such conviction is had, who, within three days thereafter, shall proceed to the correctional facilities at Cañon City and deliver the convicted person, together with the warrant, to said executive director or designee, who shall keep the convict in confinement until execution of the death penalty. Persons shall be permitted access to the inmate pursuant to prison rules. Such rules shall provide, at a minimum, for the inmate's attendants, counsel, and physician, a spiritual adviser selected by the inmate, and members of the inmate's family to have access to the inmate.

Source: L. 2002: Entire article added with relocations, p. 1453, § 2, effective October 1. L. 2002, 3rd Ex. Sess.: Entire section amended, p. 14, § 4, effective October 1. L. 2012: Entire section amended, (SB 12-175), ch. 208, p. 869, § 122, effective July 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 16-11-403 as it existed prior to 2002.

Cross references: For the legislative declaration contained in the 2002 act amending this section, see section 16 of chapter 1 of the supplement to the Session Laws of Colorado 2002, Third Extraordinary Session.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since § 18-1.3-1205 is similar to § 16-11-403 as it existed prior to the 2002 relocation of certain criminal sentencing provisions, repealed § 39-11-3, C.R.S. 1963, CSA, C. 48, § 538, and laws antecedent thereto, relevant cases construing those provisions have been included in the annotations to this section.

Meaning of "week of time". The week of time which is required by this section to be appointed and designated in capital cases within which the sentence must be executed, is a period of time extending from 12 midnight Saturday until 12 midnight the following Saturday, but an error in the designation of the week is rendered immaterial when the execution is stayed by the supreme court pending review. Mora v. People, 19 Colo. 255, 35 P. 179 (1893).

Court fixes date of execution following stay. The court has authority to fix the date of execution in cases of affirmance, where the execution has been stayed upon appeal or supersedeas. Mora v. People, 19 Colo. 255, 35 P. 179 (1893).

But definite date set in order granting stay did not deny due process. The fact that the state supreme court set a definite execution date pending determination of post-conviction relief was not "suggestion of predetermination" in violation of due process and did not constitute an implied direction to deny petitioner relief. Bell v. Patterson, 279 F. Supp. 760 (D. Colo.), aff'd, 402 F.2d 394 (10th Cir. 1968).

Procedure of delivery of prisoner by sheriff held not improper. Agnes v. People, 104 Colo. 527, 93 P.2d 891 (1939).

Applied in Medley, Petitioner, 134 U.S. 160 (1890).